The Big Time
Hugo winner (1958).
Book Entry · Science Fiction
What is Behold the Man about?
Karl Glogauer — neurotic, Jung-obsessed, fleeing a failed life and a withering relationship — rides a time machine to Judaea, AD 28, to witness the crucifixion and settle whether any of it was true. He finds John the Baptist easily enough; Jesus of Nazareth, however, proves to be a congenitally disabled man incapable of ministry, and the story Karl came to verify is vacant, waiting for someone who knows every line of it. The logic of the ending is merciless and the title tells you anyway. Expanded from the Nebula-winning 1966 novella.
Why it matters
Nebula winner and the New Wave's most notorious provocation: time-travel paradox as theology, handled with a seriousness that outlasted the scandal.
Read next
Crash
The most extreme and most influential of Ballard's urban-disaster novels; Cronenberg's 1996 film adaptation won a special jury prize at Cannes and a moral panic in the British press.
Dhalgren
The genre's most famous avant-garde novel and an enduring proof that SF readers will follow real difficulty if the sentences earn it.